which has a great history of its own ; but there is no reason to question its historic identity throughout, or that this was the occasion of its foundation. This is the great judicial measure of the reign, and was intended to meet acknow ledged evils. Blackstone has recorded his impression that every act of the reign was intended for the benefit of the exchequer ; perhaps we may allow that, under certain conditions, there is no price too heavy to pay for peace and order. The chief acts of 1489 and 1490 are commercial; cap. 13 limits the benefit of clergy, which is to be allowed only once to persons not in holy orders^ murderers are to be marked with an M., other felons with a T. ; and a second claim is not to be admitted unless the Letters of Orders are produced. Cap. 19 forbids the pulling down of ' towns,' and laying to pasture lands previously in tillage and tithable|: church and realm are alike impoverished by the devastation that is going on; owners of farm-houses, to which a holding of 20 acres is attached, are bound to keep them in repair or forfeit half the profits to the king./ The importance of this matter is the burden of the History of John Rous, the Warwick historian, who does not otherwise add to our knowledge of the reign. These two statutes are of great social significance ; signs of the times of which men like Morton and More took heed. Cap. 24, the statute for proclamation of fines, has had a reputation of greater importance than it deserves, being supposed formerly to have given the power of alienating entailed lands, and so allowing the great land owners to ruin themselves. This Hallam shows to be a mistake, and the statute accordingly becomes a minor legal detail. Most of the acts of the year 1491-2 are connected with the expedition to France, which came off in the latter year ; the securing of the rights of absentees who took part in it, \